New Years Resolutions

I don't usually do New Years resolutions (since they usually don't go anywhere and just make me feel guilty), but I was thinking about it tonight, and these seem reasonable. Sticking them up in public will hopefully give me incentive to actually carry through with them.

1. Get in better physical shape, and don't increase my clothing size. If I lose weight, do so in a healthy manner.

2. Improve my writing skills, and stop avoiding things that require deep thought.

3. Either stop fretting about money, or start budgeting and paying better attention to what I'm spending so that I can do something about it.
( Click here for more explanation )

ocelot is weird

I have this thing about my dad's jackets (No, not a *thing* thing. A completely platonic thing).

It started in 5th grade. My class was doing a Holiday play, and I was playing some hobo person. My costume consisted of this old shirt (ok, it's not a jacket, but close enough) of my dad's. It was this nice soft thick blue fabric, and I fell completely in love with it. Unfortunatly, it disappeared somewhere shortly after, so I didn't get a chance to steal it.

The next was my dad's windbreaker. He lent it to me after a middle school soccer game. When my mom tried to throw it away a few years later, I stole it. It's still in my closet. It's rather grimy and worn, and most of the elastic has lost its stretch, but I still like it.

Not that I ever wear it, but I don't think I'll ever get rid of it.

Third was my dad's zoo jacket. The last year I went trick-or-treating was in 9th grade. I went as a zookeeper, in this tan jumpsuit of my mom's, my dad's old brown jacket from the zoo (he's a gardener at the San Diego Zoo), hiking boots, and a soveneir zoo safari hat. I carried a bucket (for the candy) and some realistic looking stuffed animals. If it weren't for the stuffed animals (and that I was 15, and the fact that that style jacket belonged to the old uniform, which hadn't been in use for several years) you couldn't have distinguished me from a real zookeeper.

The next day it was cold and sprinkly, so I grabbed the jacket as I headed out to soccer practice. The girl I was walking with loved the jacket, and said that if it were hers, she'd wear it every day.

Now, I was born with a broken sense of fashion. I think this was the first time in my life that one of my peers told me they liked something I was wearing. So, of course, I took her at her word and wore it pretty much constantly for the next 2 years.

It's still hanging in my closet, and I still wear it from time to time. Its main drawbacks are lack of waterproofness and lack of useful pockets.

(He has another old zoo jacket which is even cooler, being dark green instead of brown. Unfortunatly, it's a bit tight in the shoulders (I can't understand how my dad wore it, since he's bigger than me) so I don't have any real urge to steal it, though every time I'm home I try it on to make sure that it really truly doesn't fit)

Sometime in 11th or 12th grade, I developed an attachment to my dad's old ski jacket. No amusing story to go with this one - it was simply more comfortable and less bright than my own jacket. I didn't take that one with me (it isn't terribly waterproof, either) but I still wear it when I'm home on break.

Last year my dad bought me a jacket for Christmas. I don't know if that officially falls into the category of dad's jackets, but I'll include it anyways.

Shopping for a jacket for freezing temperatures in an 80 degree store when the weather outside is in the 60s is not the best idea. We somehow decided that the best choice would be a lightweight rain jacket/windbreaker which I could put other layers under. It actually turned out to be a great jacket for about 3/4 of the year, but not quite the warm jacket I'd wanted. I really wanted a jacket like gdmusumeci's, with an outside shell and inside liner. More diverse. Oh well.

I decided at that point that stores that sell jackets really need a freezer room where you can go try on jackets, so as not to be misled by the store's warmth.

This year, while going to watch fireworks, I reached into the closet to grab the old ski jacket, and discovered that there was a new former zoo jacket hanging there. It's a rather faded and beat up black nylon jacket with a warm-ish liner. Not quite as cool as the older ones, but quite possibly more waterproof. Plus, it has useful pockets! I'm debating whether to steal it or not (not that I know if he'll let me - he could still be using it or keeping it as a backup, as it's the same style as the new one).

He also gave me an old leather jacket several years ago. I've never actually worn it beyond trying it on, but it's kind of cool. I'm trying to decide whether there's any chance I'd wear it if I brought it back to Davis. Probably not. I'd only be likely to wear it to piss off the hippies (Actually, continuing to use a leather jacket after 25 years shows more respect for the poor cow it came from than not wearing it). Of course, it's even less likely to be worn sitting in the closet here, but I don't really have much room in my luggage for it.

Ok, enough about jackets.

I had a dream the other night that I was supposed to marry Jar Jar Binks, but backed out at the last minute, because I didn't want to marry someone just for the sake of marriage, or because society expects it.

While the dream pretty accuratly summed up my feelings about marriage, I can't help asking "Why Jar Jar?".

Actually, I think it was some other gungan, and not Jar Jar, as he wasn't annoying. He was a nice enough buy, I just wasn't in love with him.

But man, could he kiss with that tongue!

My internet interests go in cycles. I'll focus heavily on some particular thing for a while (days or weeks) and then switch to something else. Its been LJ for a while, but I think its switching back to K5. I posted more there today than I have since, well, discovering LJ, and I'm mentally tossing around an idea for a story.

The story (which I've actually been considering for at least a year) would be about something related to earthquake prediction. Either earthquake prediction specifically, or paranormal activity in general. It'd be a good time to write it - I have the time, and access to the book I wanted to use as a reference (When The Snakes Awake by Helmut Tributsch). I also now have recent experience to draw from.

Last night, I woke up at about 3:45AM thinking "Something is wrong". I got online and checked around, but couldn't find anything. I was still sure something was wrong, but couldn't see anything to do about it, so I went back to bed. Since similar things had happened before, I thought "If there's an earthquake, I'll know what was wrong".

At 4:11AM, there was a 4.2 earthquake out in the Anza Borrego desert. I didn't actually feel it - it would have been pretty weak by the time it got here. If it weren't for a similar but more extreme experience I'd had about 10 years ago, I probably would have assumed it was coincidence.

Oedipal jackets, marrying Jar Jar, and earthquake prediction - have I convinced you all yet that I'm completely insane?